The Lower Colorado River Authority has halted further development of an 85-mile transmission line, which could pass through parts of Lampasas County, until a state electric council decides whether the project is needed.

The Public Utilities Commission in April denied an LCRA Transmission Services Corp. application for a certificate of convenience and necessity for TSC’s Gillespie-to-Newton transmission project. Plans had called for a 345- kilovolt line that would have begun in Gillespie County, passed through parts of Lampasas County and terminated at the west end of Kempner.

Earlier this month, the PUC denied four motions for rehearing of its April decision and asked the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to decide whether the state still needs the Gillespie-to-Newton line — which ERCOT had dubbed a “priority project.”

The Gillespie-to-Newton project is part of a Competitive Renewable Energy Zones plan to increase the reliability of the state’s electric grid and increase Texas’ use of power derived from wind and other non-fossil fuel based sources.

Additional information from ERCOT — which oversees the electric grid for about 85 percent of the state — will help LCRA plan its transmission work, LCRA general manager Tom Mason said in a press release.

“We are here to serve the state’s power transmission needs, as it defines them,” Mason said. “Now that the PUC has determined that our original route proposals were inadequate and has asked the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to reconsider the fundamental need for the line in light of changed conditions, our best course of action on this project is to await the PUC’s review of ERCOT’s recommendation.”

LCRA officials do not know exactly when they will receive a response from ERCOT, LCRA spokeswoman Clara Tuma said.

The Gillespie-to-Newton line is targeted for completion by 2013. If ERCOT decides the project is not a necessity, the council will make other plans for transmitting power from West Texas to more populated areas of the state, Ms. Tuma said.